Mercedes SLK Roadster 1998

The Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class is a compact luxury roadster manufactured by Mercedes-Benz in three generations; R170 launched in 1996, the R171 in 2004 and R172 in 2011. Mercedes-Benz presented the SLK II concept car at the 1994 Paris Motor Show, showing off the "vario-roof".[1] The car went on sale two years later in Europe, and in 1997 in the US. The SLK is built in Bremen, Germany. The designation "SLK" derives from the company's design mission to create a roadster that was at once sporty, light and short—in German: sportlich (sporty), leicht (light) und kurz (short).[2] From 2016, with the release of the fourth generation R173 model, the SLK-Class will be renamed to Mercedes-Benz SLC-Class as per the revised nomenclature adopted by the brand. Under this scheme, roadsters use the base name "SL", followed by the model's placement in Mercedes-Benz hierarchy. The "SL" is for sportlich leicht (German for sport light) and alludes the long-running SL-Class. This is followed by the letter "C"—the SLC being the roadster equivalent to the C-Class S303

Added 8 Jun 2026